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Post: Blogging Tips: Using The Optional Excerpt

When you are viewing a category page in wordpress (for e.g. film reviews), there are two main ways of displaying the post summary to your readers, the first is by using the_content(); in your category template, the second way is by using  the_excerpt();, each have their uses, each are detailed below.

the_content();

By default this will display the entire post in the category archive page(s), unless you use the more tag.

When the more tag is used, only the content above the tag will be displayed, the rest of the post will be replaced with a read more link.

If you are using the more tag, it can be customised, more info on that can be found at the wordpress codex*

the_excerpt();

By default this will display the first 55 characters of the post and use that as the post summary, unlike the the_content(): tag, this cannot be used with the more tag and cannot be customised. All HTML formatting is also removed from the post summary.

However by using the the_excerpt(); tag, you gain a big advantage, and that is you can use the optional excerpt to display the post summary, this means that you could use the first paragraph, the last paragraph, or even a paragraph that is unique for the post summary.

For e.g. if you have just posted the top 50 films of 2007 onto your blog, when you go to the category page, you will be presented with an ugly list that is cut off after 55 characters, now is when you could use the optional excerpt. For the excerpt you could use something like “After a year of great films, we have compiled a list of our 50 greatest for 2007″. This is then what readers would see on the category page, when they click to read more, they would then be presented with the list of 50 top films.

Conclusion

Its down to everyones own personal opinion as to whether or not they use the_content() or the_excerpt(), however i give more credit to the_excerpt since it allows more control over what the reader sees, without the need of hacking at the template.

For me it excerpts all the way, if you still cannot decide between the two, have a read of the wordpress codex*.

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